WINTER TIME

Winter time, this time of year it gets colder here and the days are darker, but my love for Alaska is always strong.  My people have lived here for over 20,000 years and we are still here.  We have learned to adapt to this harsh cold climate and developed survival skills.  Maybe that is why I love it here, my grandma has passed on the traditions and skills of the Athabascan people.  I am from the Fish Tail clan, from the Tetlin area, we are strong people who survive off the land.  A chiefs grand-daughter, the fish tail are the highest part of the clan system told to me by others, but my grandma told me that we are not above or better than anyone else, we are looked upon in that way because we hold our persona in such a fashion to be thought of in high regard.  We treat people with kindness and hospitality, we give gifts in the best quality and give with a kind heart with love.  She said, that is why they look upon us with high regard, not because we are at the top or better than anyone else.  I learned a lot from my grandma, she taught me our traditonal ways.

Just like now, winter time, while its dark and cold, my grandmother taught me not to be idol with my time, but to take time to sew, bond with family, and before my ancestors would take this time to rest from our harvest season.  This is the time we would entertain ourselves with games, singing, dancing, story telling, sewing, and much more.  Times have changed though, but I still carry on these traditons today in my modern life.  We still do much of the same things from our past, but we fused some new modern day activities in our life.  Some modern activities we would like to do now is play basketball, snow machine riding, sledding, snow boarding, make a snow man and join activities the city provides, unless we still live in the village. 

Our people learn to adapt to many new life changes and we will continue to adapt.  The internet is another new adaption.  My new hobby is websites, blogs, and social media, but how my fusion of this is to tell stories of our traditions, sell my traditional artwork, and stay connected with my friends and family.  This tool is great and wonderful, so now in this time of darkness and cold, utilizing the world wide web is amazing to carry on traditions in modern day, by entertaining ourselves by telling or reading stories, playing games, watching dances, learn new songs, and sew traditional artwork and posting on the internet for sale.

A great place to find some Alaska Native Artwork is on the World Wide Web and currently I've been managing a website called http://northstar49.com  I've sold out on all my artwork, but I'll be working on more of my artwork together, so if your interested check out the website often.  And here as well.  Hope you enjoyed my blog.